Patriarch Kirill urged Christian soldiers to get rid of “hatred of an individual”

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, spoke at the State Duma as part of the Christmas meetings.

“Our country has been in a state of armed and fratricidal conflict provoked by external forces for almost a year,” he said. The Church, according to the clergyman, “has never divided and does not divide the flock into strangers and its own,” but as a “loving mother, she tries to share the hardships with those who suffer and need.”

Wars, unfortunately, apparently, will accompany mankind until the end of history, the patriarch noted, but “the church reaction to war remains unchanged: we respond with a prayer for peace, which is now offered up in all churches.”

“The task of a Christian soldier is to honestly and selflessly fulfill his duties on the battlefield, the fight against the enemy should not turn into hatred for an individual for a Christian,” said the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, noting that there are a lot of Orthodox among the soldiers. He supported the idea to extend to the priests, who are on the front lines along with the military, those benefits and guarantees that the combatants already have.

A significant part of his speech was devoted to confronting the “value mainstream that has formed in the West” in relation to family and marriage. The ROC continues to advocate for the exclusion of abortions from the list of medical services provided under the compulsory medical insurance program, and for the strengthening of social support measures for women from the first months of pregnancy.

He also touched upon the topic of those who left Russia “against the background of mobilization.” “The fear of death is understandable,” said the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, but, in his opinion, one should not be surprised at the mass departures: “For many years, Western values ​​have been implanted and affirmed among the younger generation, which are perceived completely uncritically.”

In his closing remarks, commenting on the words of some leaders of the Duma factions about the need to abandon the ban on the state ideology (which is spelled out in the Constitution of the Russian Federation), the head of the Russian Orthodox Church explained this ban by the fact that the post-Soviet society was “scared” by the long domination of one ideology – communist. And he suggested using the words “national idea” instead of the words “state ideology”, which “unite everyone”. But the national idea still needs to be developed, the patriarch believes, for which “everyone should work and be in dialogue”, studying “the past and present and trying to see our future.”